http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVbQcvLCGK0 Just rewatched Cleverly vs Hawk and Bellew vs Bolonti and out of Hawk and Bolonti it was definitely Bolonti that came out looking like a joke. Granted, Shawn Hawk wasn't the best opponent that Cleverly could have picked but to be fair he was a last minute replacement and credit to him he got in and gave it a real go, he took the fight to Cleverly and tried his best. Bolonti on the other hand was given something like 6 weeks notice for the fight with Bellew, Bellew told everyone in interviews that Bolonti was a dangerous opponent with dynamite in both hands, yet Bolonti came to the UK and survived for 12 rounds and didn't even try to win. Hawk gets more respect than Bolonti imo.
Is he **** a more respectable opponent than Bolonti. Boxrec didn't even have Hawk in the top 40, whilst Bolonti I believe was in the top 20 and was ranked very highly by the WBC in particular. Of course Bolonti turned out to be a complete dud but Bellew wasn't to know that before he got in the ring with him. He was a completely unknown quantity, he could have been very dangerous for what any of us knew. Cleverly on the other hand knew full that Hawk was a pile of **** because he'd lost his previous fight and wasn't ranked highly by anyone. Ryan Coyne was a decent opponent and it's a shame that fight fell through. Shawn Hawk though was total garbage and Nathan knew it but fought him anyway. That's the difference.
Shawn Hawk was a joke of an opponent, but seriously who cares about Cleverly anymore he is beyond embarrassing now
Neither opponent was all that cracking. Hawk was dispatched pretty much as you'd expect by Cleverly, whilst Bolonti had a pretty looking record but wasn't brilliant. I think both would have done better against each other's opponent, rather than their own. Hawk would have gone over early against Bellew, he'd have had 0 respect for him and probably put him to sleep inside three rounds. I think Cleverly would have stopped Bolonti with relative ease, Bellew probably would have done but for the cut, but I do think that at the very least he ought to have got him out of there.
Difference is Clevs was a world title fight and Bellews fight was to get good rankings with the organizations.
Regardless of who's the better opponent, Bellew was merely fighting a guy ranked higher than him in order to climb up the board and get another world title shot. Cleverly can defend against any legit contender and instead gets fed guys like Tommy Karpency and Vycheslav Uzelkov.
Despite your waffling a few lads have hit on the most pertinent issue here. Cleverly is supposed to be defending a world title belt and to date the names he's fought and even the names he's been scheduled to face have been nowhere near good enough. Sometimes when you're an upcomer you have to fight the odd nobody, that may well have a completely soft record and turn out to be ****, just to progress. Equally they may well turn out to be good. Think of it this way...who was Marcos Maidana before he went to Ukraine and fought Kotelnik in a good fight? Who was Matthyse before he emerged out of Argentina? Chances are you know a guy ain't going to be as good as them by looking at film, but at the same time you didn't really know whether those guys were the real deal til they got hit by a live opponent. Blame the organizations for such easy manipulation of rankings, not the fighter. Fact is there are hundreds of fighters out there ranked highly that we know nothing of and you are going to have to fight them now and then.
Typically a TTG will not grow above the 160 mark, although some have been known to venture into the murky waters of SMW and above with mixed success.